Went to do a welfare check on a friend and found her dead on the couch

Sorry for this experience. I hope writing about it is helpful. I found similar relief from writing during past challenges.

Life is a gift.

 

Tried to take a pic of Hannah just now, but she wanted me to pet her and immediately got up…

 

SIT!!!

 

Charlie, I just came upon this thread.

You and Amanda are such a good compassionate friends, that Emily will live on your memories together.

Looks like you all three shared many interests over the years and hopefully many more between Amanda and yourself.

I don't grieve well myself when I lose a close one, however from the bottom of my heart I can offer you a virtual tight handshake and a hug of support as you move through this time.

Hannah is also very lucky to have you available to take her in. She may not know or show it yet, but she will miss Emily.

-Craig

 

Hi Charlie, long time no talk but I wanted to chime in here because your story was very real and touching to me on a personal level.
What you did the other day took a lot of courage, which made me remember an old FDR quote that I would like to share with you below.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear." -FDR

 

I don’t think she knows that what she witnessed, but without a doubt she witnessed Emily die. She was also next to Emily’s body when we came to the window. Again, she likely did not realize that her owner was passing away, but she no doubt witnessed it. The most heartbreaking moment for me was when they wheeled Emily’s body out of the condo on a gurney. She was in a body bag and obviously not visible, but Hannah knew Emily was in there. She promptly started whining and attempting to follow the van driver. I was sitting on the tailgate of my truck and holding Hannah’s leash when they brought her body out, and I was talking to my mom on the phone; I had managed to hold back tears all night for the sake of being strong for Amanda, but I started crying and said something like “Oh my God, mom, they’re bringing Emily’s body out now and Hannah knows it’s her!”

 

We knew in our hearts something was wrong. Amanda has this sixth sense, and later admitted to me that she had a feeling Emily was dead before we got there. We knew full well what we might find, and our reasoning was that we didn’t want a repeat of Amanda’s birth mother, who decomposed in her apartment for about five days (in winter with the heat on) before a friend called the police to do a welfare check. Amanda’s mother lived in Coatesville, which is about an hour away from where we live; Emily lived about 15 minutes from my house. Amanda had last heard from Emily on Thursday night (we found her on Saturday night and believe that she passed either late Friday night or early Saturday morning). It was really warm last weekend, so we also knew that Emily would have had the A/C on in the condo. If the worst had in fact happened, we knew that two days was way different than five days, and that the A/C would have helped preserve the body.

I truly believe that a higher power beckoned us to Emily’s house that night, as Emily’s dad was about to fly down to Florida to care for his sister who had a knee replacement surgery. It is very possible that Emily would have been found for three to five days, or more.

For a brief second after seeing her through the window (the blinds were up ever so slightly and my Taco’s headlights were shining through the window), I thought “Okay good, she’s asleep and she’s gonna be really angry that we woke her up, but she’s alive.” That hope quickly faded when I started pounding on the glass and screaming her name. Amanda said she saw her chest go up and down twice, which gave us the false assumption that she was in distress but still alive, and that we’d saved her life.

Emily’s ex-boyfriend got a text from her at 9:42PM on Friday night, and the cop told us she’d probably been gone for at least a day. This is chronologically impossible because Dennis heard from her via text at 9:42PM on Friday night and we found her just before 8:40PM on Saturday night. Based on this timeline, we believe that she passed sometime before midnight, but it’s possible she could have left this earth 12 to 14 hours before we found her. The paramedic told Amanda she was in full rigor, but like I said, she looked like she was merely passed out on the couch until the cop turned the lights on.

 

Dennis went back through his text messages and found that the last message he received from Emily was at 9:59PM on Friday, when she simply said "Oh" in response to him telling her that he at a concert; Emily said in the 9:42PM text that she could not get around (like room to room in her condo) without being out of breath. On another note, she hated sleeping with the lights on and it's possible she decided to sleep on the couch, possibly because she might have been too weak to make it to her bed. Remember, our initial belief was she'd passed in the daylight hours due to the lights being off. The fact that the TV was off and her eyes were closed are also clues that she died in her sleep.

 

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/emily-walsh-obituary?id=58350027

 

There are going to be two services for Emily. The one mentioned in the obituary above was planned by Emily’s mom, and will be for family and close friends only; I have no idea when it will be. The service that Amanda and I have been invited to will be on Monday, May 19th at 10am. Emily’s father, his girlfriend, their respective friends, and Emily’s friends will be at this service

Emily’s dad informed Amanda this morning that Emily will be cremated, which we both think is better because now Amanda won’t have to worry about seeing her body again.

 

One week ago, Amanda and I were chilling in my bedroom and watching reruns of The Masked Singer…

 

At roughly this time, Amanda suddenly realized that she hadn’t heard from Emily in two days, and became worried, which prompted her call her and text her…

 

At 8:11pm, Amanda bugged me to make an attempt, and I texted “Everything okay?”

 

At 8:13pm, I called Emily. The phone rang numerous times before going to voicemail…

 

Sometime before 8:20, probably around 8:15, I decided that we were driving to Emily’s to check on her; I didn’t think she would be dead, but Amanda has a sixth sense when it comes to this stuff and we still her mother’s death fresh in our minds…

 

About 8:20PM, I went downstairs and told my dad that we were driving over to Emily’s house to check on her. He thought we were making a big deal over nothing, and that Emily was either asleep or at work…

 

I’d say that by 8:22 to 8:25, we were in the Tacoma driving to Emily’s…

 

At 8:32, I called Emily and left a voicemail…